A composition adapted to sacred words in the elaborate polyphonic church style; an anthem.
Monteverde had been trained in the polyphonic school of Palestrina, but his genius had never acquiesced in the rules and restrictions in which the older masters delighted.
Although Franck only avails himself of guiding themes to a limited extent, in mastery of the polyphonic style his work will compare with Wagner's most elaborate scores.
It shows that polyphonic writing must have reached to a high point of development even so far back as the thirteenth century, and there is every reason to believe, even long before then.
It was polyphonic in treatment, and generally grave in character.
Polyphonic complexity is to be found in some of the Mazourkas.
His ten digits are ten independent voices recreating the ancient polyphonic art of the Flemings.
A passive role is Sanine's in the composition of this elaborate canvas, the surface simplicity of which deceives us as to its polyphonic complexity.
A few themes with polyphonic variations filled his simple life.
Presently the system of polyphonic music arises, in which several voices sing different melodies so arranged as not to jar with each other.
Both men went to school to Bach and the polyphonic masters.
He was master of polyphonic music as well as plain-song, and he proposed applying it to grace the older mode, preserving the solemn beauty of the chant but adding the charming chords of counterpoint.
Unrhythmical singing could not always hold its own; and when polyphonic music came into public favor, secular airs gradually found their way into the choirs.
Though we cannot deny a rude breach of ancient rule and mode, there is in Mahler a genuine, original, individual quality of polyphonic art that marks a new stage since the first in Bach and a second in Beethoven.
A polyphonic composition, developed from a given theme or themes, according to strict contrapuntal rules.
On the other was the widespread taste for part singing and the constantly growing skill of composers in adapting to secular ideas the polyphonic science of the church.
Partly by reason of the confusion caused by obedience to old polyphonic customs in making the accompaniments, and partly because the madrigal had become a field for the display of vocal agility.
We shall in another place in this work examine the methods of the lutenists and singers of the fifteenth century in adapting polyphonic compositions to delivery by a single voice with accompaniment of an instrument.
They were vocal soloists and often improvisatori, clearly differentiated from the cantori a libro, who were "singers by book and note" and who sang the polyphonic art music of the time.
The revolt was not only against polyphonic music in which text was treated without regard for its communicative purpose, but also against the decorative manner of solo singing, which made words only backgrounds for arabesques of sound.
The rapid expansion of the florid element in the polyphonic music of the composers indicates to us that the improvised descant of the singer had a sensible influence.
Finally, Palestrina demonstrated the scope of polyphonic music in the expression of religious emotions at times bordering upon the dramatic in their poignancy.
Perhaps the unsuitability of polyphoniccomposition might have made itself clear earlier than it did, had not the general state of Italian thought and taste moved in a direction making this impossible.
If no other evidence were at hand, the works of Vecchi would be sufficient to prove that the logical progress of the medieval lyric drama in one direction had led it into the very mazes of the polyphonic wilderness.
Second, the solo parts were constructed according to the method developed by the lutenists, who devised a manner of singing one part of a polyphonic composition and utilizing the other parts as the instrumental support.
The old polyphonic school came to an end with Orlando Gibbons in 1625.
A very important agent in stimulating a revival of interest in the mediaeval polyphonic school is the St. Cecilia Society, which was founded at Regensburg in 1868 by Dr.
This mediaeval school of a capella polyphonic music is in many respects more attractive to the student of ecclesiastical art than even the far more elaborate and brilliant style which prevails to-day.
This mediaeval polyphonic music, although the most complete example in art of the perfect adaptation of means to a particular end, could not long maintain its exclusive prestige.
I thoroughly believe in the value of polyphonic music as a mental study; it is a necessity.
I institute quite early what I call polyphonic technic--one hand doing a different movement or touch from the other.
Now used for plain harmony, note against note, as opposed to polyphonic harmony, in which the several parts move independently, each with its own melody.
Defn: A composition adapted to sacred words in the elaborate polyphonic church style; an anthem.
Defn: A polyphonic composition, developed from a given theme or themes, according to strict contrapuntal rules.
And then the pleasure of immersing oneself again in the multisonorous euphony of strings and making it penetrate even the furthest fibers of the polyphonic web!
I began a score which required massed polyphonic effects: a mechanical piano and an electrically driven harmonium, a section of percussion instruments, and two Hungarian cymbalons.
The easiest solution would have been to use some such polyphonic instrument as the piano or harmonium.
Whereas these compositions were written for ensembles of instruments of greater or less importance, I wanted to condense mine into a small number of movements for one polyphonic instrument.
This method of "imitation" was employed by all the polyphonic composers.
Polyphonic music of every sort had now to go for a while; monodic music was coming in.
During this period the old style of polyphonic music went out and the new came in.
The old polyphonic music differed from the newer harmonic music in three respects: 1.
He explored the relationships between Eastern polyphonic scales and the Western twelve note scale.
He was finding that many of the popu- lar rock guitarists were playing lead riffs that had a genealogy which sprang from Indian polyphonic sitar strains.
There is everything in fact except polyphonic prose, and although I am afraid she loves her experiments in that form, they are the portion of her complete works that I could most willingly let die.
Her most ambitious attempt in polyphonic prose is Guns as Keys: and the Great Gate Swings, whereof the title is like a trumpet fanfare.
To be sure, the first one, The Hotel, is in a kind of polyphonic prose, but it is not at all a fair sample of the contents.
Perhaps we could say of the polyphonic people that they are well versed in prose.
Each successive work that emanates from Elgar's pen emphasizes his monumental command of polyphonic structure in its largest dimensions, clothed meanwhile in the most realistic of orchestral garments.
Polyphonic choral art of the Netherland School developed consecutively contrapuntal technique, euphony, objective emotionalism, and culminated in the works of Lasso, when it was rivalled if not eclipsed by the creations of Palestrina.
Lasso, embodying in his works the highest ideals of polyphonic writing, transplanted them into Germany.
Franck differs from his French contemporaries by reason of what might be termed the masculine severity of his inspiration, together with monumental mastery of polyphonic design and exhaustless command of orchestral resources.
Here, during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, polyphonic vocal music was reared on the exalted pedestals of noble Gothic architecture.
Mozart's writing for the orchestra is distinguishable for amalgamating as well as for contrasting the earlier polyphonic methods with the monophonic style that was being cultivated by his contemporaries.
And Bach transplanted this polyphonic style into the orchestra with the result that the treatment of each individual instrument was distinctly melodic.
Tersely stated, the ideal of this polyphonic giant revealed itself in subtle expression as concealed in his filigree of mercurial counterpoint, in the portrayal of inner feeling, and in profound religious fervor.
The primary object was clearness of polyphonic design, and since clearness of detail does not admit of great force, the first and second orchestral groups were rarely united other than in forte passages.
This choral work has been called "a broadly flowing stream of polyphonic vocal harmony against an elaborate and independent orchestral accompaniment that was something quite unprecedented.
The scores of these works do not display radical departure from contemporary methods excepting in polyphonic treatment and individualistic coloring.
Differentiated style of choral and instrumental writing was accentuated, and although polyphonic mannerism was still prevalent in orchestration, a tendency for individualistic instrumentation was at least apparent.
He combined and interchanged polyphonic and monophonic style of writing to a most felicitous degree.
Infusing his own vital emotions into polyphonic forms he gave the piano far grander tone-pictures than those of Couperin.
Viewed rightly, this suits the modern democratic instinct, and there is to-day a tendency to return to polyphonic writing.
The great Bach infused this into his fugues, the highest manifestation of the contrapuntal, or polyphonic music of old.
He did not succeed, however, in satisfying the Academicians with his attempt to grasp the medium between speech and song, and his choruses were thought tedious because of their employment of the intricatepolyphonic style.
In this work Gounod has discarded the polyphonic method of the previous school of Italian and German sacred music, and adopted the dramatic treatment.
It is quite certain that the characteristic melody of the eighteenth century is, on the whole, more susceptible of polyphonic treatment than that of our own time.
And, first, we may take the polyphonic problem, not only because it has some chronological priority, but because the system which it implies is more limited and more readily exhaustible.
Secondly, it returned to Bach, and adapted his polyphonic system to the requirements of the new musical language.
It is Mozart's merit to have brought polyphonic and thematic treatment, modified according to the altered character of the music and the nature of the instrument, to its freest and most beautiful expression.
This work must not be considered as a relapse into the strict forms of counterpoint, such as the canon and the fugue, but as the free development of the laws to which polyphonic and contrapuntal forms are alike subject.
This free and intellectual treatment of the polyphonic method was distasteful to many of Mozart's contemporaries, who only accepted the traditional forms of counterpoint.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "polyphonic" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
